


Summer

by fryan_get



Category: Persona 4
Genre: M/M, My First Fanfic, Slice of Life, pls support me
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-12-30
Updated: 2019-12-29
Packaged: 2021-02-27 11:41:50
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,148
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22026529
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fryan_get/pseuds/fryan_get
Summary: Summer can be transformative, but to what extent Kanji and Yosuke are just about to find out.
Relationships: Hanamura Yosuke/Tatsumi Kanji
Comments: 2
Kudos: 22





	Summer

A figure was moving along the dirt road that led to the formerly bustling Shopping District in Inaba. The figure, hunched over and sluggish, was dragging a bag behind him. His black roots were beginning to show beneath the straw-like blond hair that he used to regularly bleach. It was the end of exam season and he needed a day off.

His name was Tatsumi Kanji, and his family owned a textile shop in the shopping district of Inaba that was famous for providing the beautifully patterned cloth that was regular fashioned into the yukata and futon bedding at the local historic Amagi Inn. Since he turned 18 last January, his mother had been more and more of a presence in his home-life, frequently leaving passive hints at him inheriting his family’s business in the future. Tied to Inaba, just like Yukiko. 

He felt the pressure, but he had more or less accepted this when he was young. He just wanted a break to see more of the world, figure some things out. He had inadvertently let some personal details about himself slip to the whole town 3 years ago when he and his friends had saved Inaba from a murderous cop who was kidnapping people and trapping them in an alternate dimension. Kanji himself had been one of the victims, getting trapped in a twisted fantasy of his ‘true self’ which he had been denying for a long time.

Kanji was gay, and living in Inaba it wasn’t ok to be gay. Hell, most people had never thought of it. ‘It doesn’t happen to people here, only in the city’ they thought. In more extreme cases it didn’t even exist, and it was just a myth created by TV to cause unneeded controversy.

But Kanji knew differently, and had since he was in elementary school. While all of his classmates were developing crushes on the girls in their class, or on their female teachers, he was crushing on his best friend. His friend’s family moved away before he had realized, but since then he had convinced himself it was just a fluke. And then it happened again. And again.

But it’s just a coincidence, right? And no one would be able to tell. ‘Maybe I’ll be able to make it go away,’ he had thought. ‘I just need to act like a man and I’ll stop liking them, right?’  
He had acted out in middle school, and for part of high school. He had even had to repeat his freshman year because of truancy.

But he met his senpais. He met Yosuke, Yu, Yukiko and all the rest. They helped him accept himself; they already had to escape the hellish nightmare that was the world inside of the TV.

He had spent a good part of that year with these people, and they accepted and believed in him. They valued him and it was the first time he had felt that way in years. But he still couldn’t accept that part of himself. It was bared in the open, for the whole town to see, but he still felt that twinge of shame that he wouldn’t be who his parents hoped. He still felt like a disappointment.

So he wanted to see the world. See what his life could become if he were anywhere else. Yosuke and Yu had both grown up in the city and they were so different from the other kids in Inaba. He wanted to see what had made them that way; see other people like them, see all kinds of people he would never see living in this town in the middle of nowhere.

He decided to apply to university. All sorts of universities all over Japan, as long as he would have the opportunity to be away from Inaba, even if only for a little bit. He would come back eventually, it was his home. He just wanted to experience something new, and to be able to come clean with himself.

He stepped into his home and kicked off his shoes, taking care to organize them neatly in the entryway to his house. As he stepped into his slippers, he called out that he was home. He could hear his mother’s reply from the kitchen. He dragged himself up the stairs to his bedroom and flopped onto his futon. It was only 5pm but he was completely bushed.

How many more exams did he have? He couldn’t remember. He thought he was done, but then he remembered that he would have exams in his regular classes as well.

His hand crept into his pocket and pulled his cell phone out. The least he could do was try and contact his friends again.

As he scrolled through the messages on his phone, his thumb kept stopping him on one of the senpai with whom he had spent a lot of time: Hanamura Yosuke. 

He opened the conversation and scrolled through it a few times, rereading the messages they had exchanged a few days ago. He had been invited to dinner soon, since Yu was going to be in town.

He had already accepted the invitation, but he kept reading the messages. Analyzing everything.

His face grew hot and his body felt a little lighter as he imagined Yosuke carefully crafting every message. What was Yosuke doing now? he wondered.

‘Oi’

He sent the two characters and started scrolling through the stickers he could send. He selected a bear he deemed appropriate and looked at his phone, anticipating a reply. His eyes remained fixated on his phone as he slid the slacks of his uniform off.

His phone buzzed; 

‘What’s up?’

He stared the message up and down as he thought of how to reply. He didn’t really have much to say, he just wanted to talk to Yosuke. He didn’t even know why.

‘What’s the plan for dinner?’

He set his phone down and continued to undress from his school uniform. After he was down to his underwear, he laid down on his bed with his phone resting beside his hand. A small fan oscillated in the corner of his room, just barely providing relief from the summer heat. 

His phone buzzed in a familiar pattern, and he groped lazily to grab it. As he lifted his hand above his face to see the screen, it slipped from his grasp and landed on his face with a dull thud.

He winced in pain and sat up, cupping his nose in both hands. Fortunately, there was no blood. He sighed and reached over for his phone again. Let’s see what senpai said this time.

“It’s not for like 2 weeks. Why?”

His face flushed and he could feel his heartbeat increase. A mixture of embarrassment and fear washed over him and began searching for something to explain.

“I dunno, exams are killing me. Just looking to make conversation.”

His message was immediately marked as read and he could see that Yosuke was already writing a reply. After what seemed like ages, he got a reply.

“Come to Junes then”

He thought for a minute, looking down at his mostly naked body and back at his phone. He hadn’t seen Yosuke for a while, especially since he had been applying himself at school for once, so he decided to make the trip to Junes. He slipped on a pair of slacks and a tank top and headed downstairs to make the walk to Junes, the only department store in Inaba.

“Ma, I’m gonna run to Junes for a bit. I’ll be back later tonight; don’t wait up for dinner for me!” he shouted, slipping on his shoes and heading out the door.

His previously slumped over figure was changed to a more energetic one as he jogged to the largest building in Inaba. When he reached the building, he headed up to the food court, where he, Yosuke, and his  
other schoolmates used to meet before their forays into the world in the TV. 

He sat down at their old table and pulled his phone out of his pocket, sending a new text to Yosuke.

“I just got here. Where are you?”

He scanned the surroundings to see if he could find his friend, looking for his dyed brown hair and signature headphones. 

“Your roots are showing,” Kanji heard a familiar voice from behind him and jumped out of his seat.

“H-hey…” he said nodding anxiously to his friend. “Yeah, I haven’t bleached my hair for a few months. I’m thinking of going back to black.” 

“Hahaha, nice!” Yosuke laughed. “I could never go back to black, even if I had to.” he pulled at a loose lock of hair near his face. “I just look weird with my natural color, y’know?” 

“I dunno, I’m sure you’d look fine.” muttered Kanji, sitting back down as Yosuke slid into a seat around the table. “Aren’t you working today?”

“Nah, I’ve got the day off. But there’s nothing to do and I don’t have enough money to go to the city, so here I am.” He sighed, sliding his phone onto the table. 

“Y’know, I haven’t even been to the city,” said Kanji bashfully, he slid his own phone on the table as well and looked up at Yosuke.

Despite having lived in Inaba for years, Yosuke still kept up with the modern trends in the city, spending most of his income from his part-time job at Junes on trips to Tokyo and Nagoya to go shopping. In the summer heat, he was wearing a loose-fitting striped v-neck t-shirt and a pair of calf-length chino pants with a pair of brand-name shoes. He had a dog tag around his neck, and his trademark headphones were nowhere to be found, likely in the leather tote that was resting on another empty chair at their table. His hair was short and golden blonde, but not as short as Kanji’s.  
Kanji looked down at his own clothing, and suddenly felt inadequate, but tried to keep those feelings of his face.

“Well, we should go sometime! I can show you where I like to hang out.” Yosuke winked playfully at Kanji and he blushed. Kanji quickly looked away at a nearby vending machine to hide his embarrassment and decided to grab something to drink. 

“D-do you want anything to drink?” Kanji stood up suddenly and gestured toward the vending machine.

“Sure, get me a green tea,” Yosuke replied. He slid 150 yen across the table and Kanji scooped it up before jogging over to the vending machine. Yosuke looked at him quizzically as he moved away. Was Kanji doing ok?

Kanji stared at the selection in the vending machine and debated what he wanted to get. He slipped Yosuke’s coins into the machine and pressed the button for Green Tea, then slipped another 150 yen from his own wallet and grabbed a milk tea. He swiped the two bottles from the bin at the bottom of the machine and then looked at his own reflection in the white portion of the vending machine’s face. His cheeks and ears were still red, but it looked to be subsiding slightly. He held his cool milk-tea bottle against his head and then headed back to his seat.

He tossed the bottle to Yosuke and then twisted the cap off his own bottle. He took a small sip and then screwed the cap back on, then looked at Yosuke again. Yosuke was looking at him with an almost worried look.

“Are you ok?” Yosuke asked.

“Yeah, why?”

“I dunno, you just seemed kinda jumpy since I got here, so...” he trailed off.

“It’s the exams, man. I haven’t studied this much in my life and I still have no idea how I’m actually doing,” Kanji shrugged.

Yosuke nodded and took a sip from his own drink before clearing his throat. “Y’know, if you need help studying I can help,” he said. Kanji perked up and looked at Yosuke. “Despite how I look, I did manage to graduate,” he flashed a smug smile at Kanji before winking again.

“Th-that’d be great,” Kanji replied, blushing. He took another swig of his tea before fixing his gaze back on Yosuke, hoping his blushing wasn’t obvious.

“Ok, why don’t we go to my house, then? Do you have time today?”

Kanji was taken aback. “Y-yeah, it’s Thursday but I only have one exam tomorrow in the afternoon,” he said. He glanced at his phone to check the time. It was about 6:00, and he had told his mom he’d be late.

“Alright, let’s go. I’m getting bored here anyway, don’t have the money to buy anything nice.” Yosuke gazed at the clothing stores behind Kanji before turning his eyes back.

They packed their things and headed towards the exit of the mall. Next stop: the Hanamura Residence.


End file.
